New Ulm weekly review., 1887-09-07
The RsssfIe2. u LOf,l:x OUe1. the
u all. Paintings i,s
z1:x2.3le2 HYLL.

q II tk--E@tsig1fi1tgS az
Tern e3. HulL.
j Last week 4 spent q very pleasant
evening at Turner Hall, listening to a
gentleman who had visited q number
Of the places represented in the paint
ings that adorn the walls Of the bar
room in the basement. AS the gentle
man is well versed in the history, leg
endary as well as authentic, of the
subject matter of these paintings, his
narrative proved very interesting to
me. For the benefit of those who have
occasion to look over these paintings
now and then, shall try to recount the
i gist OF his remarks. As the original
narrator will be requested to read the
/ proof-sheets, my readers can rest as
sured that any blunders may make as
to dates and other, facts, have been
eliminated before going to press.
-
Nearly all the paintings are the work
of 8 Mr.. M 5thua. who with his wife.
Mrs. Methua-Scheller, a gifted actress,
sOjourned for some time in this city q
number of years ago, entertaining the
public with theatrical performances.
Mr.. Methua was a skillful landscape
painter, and the Turnverein employed
him to decorate the walls of the base
ment of their new hall with paintings
OF his own selection. AS he enlarged
principally from wood-cuts. the paint
ings are necessarily somewhat defective
here and there in the matter of color
ing, but on the whole they convey quite
a fair idea of the places and castles
they are intended to represent. Some
time after leaving New Ulm, Mr.. and
Mrs. Methua died of yellow fever, at
New Orleans.
| Entering the bar room by the front
door, the first painting on the right rep
resents the city of Heidelberg, situat-
ed on the left bank of the Neckar River,
in the Grand Duchy of Baden, six or
seven miles east of the Rhine. Anum-
ber of mile.stones recently dug out in
the western part Of the city prove that
its site was within the dominion of the
Roman emperors during the third cen.
tury of the Christian era. There was a
Roman. settlement near the present city
limits, and another across the Neckar
the first settler on record, however
in our sense of the term, was Conrad,
the half-brother of Frederick [ (Barba-
rossa). Conrad was appointed pals.
grave by his imperial kinsman, and in
the second half of the twelfth century
he erected a castle on the side of the
mountain (Koenigstuhl) which rises
back of the present castle. Under the
protection of this stronghold, subse-
quently known as ''the old castle'', q
settlement was soon formed in the val.
ley below, and the name Heidelberg Civ.
en- to it. In a few years Heidelberg be.
came the capital of the Rhine Palati-
nate, an honor which it retained fol
five centuries. Subsequently second
castle was built on a hill (JettenbuehD
near the northern base of the Koenig.
s:ubl. In 1888, the Neckar inundated
the city and the surrounding country,
and contiagration completed the work
of destruction, in which the lower castle
was included. The city was soon re.
: built, and what is now the rear portion
OF the castle as shown in the painting,
was erected on the Jettenbuehl. In
1908, the palsgrave took up his resi-.
dence iu this new castle, and the old
castle was thenceforth used as an ar.
senal until 1887, when lightning struck
a tower filled with gunpowder, by the
explosion of which the old castle was
completely destroyed.
-
/ Numerous additions were subsequent-
built to the new castle on the Jetten-
=
buehl, until the various edifces, at the
close of the sixteenth century, inclosed
an Irregular qaadrangular space. The
Oldest portion of the castle visible in
| the painting, is the round tower at the
extreme left it was built about the
middle of the fifteenth century. The
octagonal tower at the right was built
"a century later.
At the beginning Of the Thirty Years
War. Palsgrave Frederick V accepted
the Bohemian crown, thereby causing
the invasion of his country by the i'm.
perial troops under lilly, who took and
ransacked the city twice. Subsequent
/ lv IONS XIV of France laid o1air, ~